Why Is Photoshop So Slow or Laggy?

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Quick brush fixes

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   1. Set Smoothing to 0% in the options bar
   2. Hide rulers (Ctrl/Cmd+R) if lag disappears
   3. Lower brush spacing and size
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Tune Performance preferences

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   1. Edit > Preferences > Performance
   2. Memory Usage around 70-80%
   3. History States 20-50, Cache Levels 2-4, Cache Tile Size 128K for layered files
   4. Tick Use Graphics Processor with an up-to-date driver
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Reduce file load

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   1. Merge layers, rasterize unneeded smart objects, crop to the working area
   2. Use a fast SSD as scratch disk
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. 4. If lag persists

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   1. Untick Multithreaded Compositing in Performance preferences and restart
   2. Reset preferences at launch
   3. Roll back to the previous Photoshop version if lag started with an update
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Brush strokes trail behind the cursor, tools freeze, large files take long to open, or Photoshop stutters after an update (27.9.1 stutter threads exist).

Why it happens

• Brush smoothing set high
• Memory limit too low or other apps using RAM
• Too many history states, cache levels or big layered files
• Rulers or certain panels causing redraw lag
• GPU off or driver problems
• Multithreaded compositing conflicts
• Scratch disk on a slow drive

This guide also covers

• why is photoshop so slow
• photoshop brush lag
• photoshop lagging
• photoshop slow performance
• photoshop freezing

The same problem in other apps

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